


Sacrament

by Fericita



Category: Mercy Street (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Arranged Marriage, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-10
Updated: 2018-12-10
Packaged: 2019-09-15 21:46:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16941336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fericita/pseuds/Fericita
Summary: Alice is arrested for spying, and Mrs. Green decides the best way to keep Emma safe from implication and arrest is to marry the Mansion House chaplain.





	Sacrament

It wasn’t how she pictured her wedding day. She and Alice had spent many nights talking about their future weddings, the fine linens of their trousseaus, the extravagant gifts. Alice wanted peacocks brought in to wander the yard during her ceremony. Now Alice was under house arrest, while Jimmy and Father were in prison for smuggling weapons. Mother had gone to live with her parents further south, and it had been her idea to make this arrangement for Emma. “I always thought I would marry you off to an important family. That beautiful face, your graceful ways. Now the best I can hope for is to keep you safe. And he will do that. “

The groom wasn’t who she had pictured either. She smoothed the front of her dress and thought about the first time she wore it, at her debutante ball. She remembered how Frank had winked at her as she (gracefully, beautifully) glided down the staircase, how she had wondered and hoped at its meaning as she went through her dance card. And then at the end of the night, his passionate confessions of love and her thrill at those words. But the war had changed - or revealed - him. Frank felt as foreign to her as this fancy dress did after months of wearing simple gowns at the hospital. She didn’t want Frank- didn’t want dashing or dangerous or boastful. She wanted steadiness, kindness, faithfulness. She took a breath as deep as her corset would allow, thinking back to the unusual proposal.

Though she had expected her parents to have some hand in arranging a marriage for her, she hadn’t ever pictured her mother proposing on her behalf. Especially not to a Yankee Army Chaplain. And yet it turned out “Yankee” and “army” were what her mother fixated on, was certain would keep her daughter out of trouble with that same army. Alice’s arrest had started talk that Emma was nursing as a ruse, that she was really learning union strategy and secrets. That she arranged for Frank’s entrance into the hospital, precipitating murders and assassination plots. Mrs. Green had heard the talk and decided on swift, certain action.

Henry kept his eyes on Emma. Emma wasn’t sure if she was blushing from the directness of her mother’s words or the directness in Henry’s gaze. “It’s a sacrament not to be entered lightly. It would be forever. Not for the length of this war or until your family fortune is no longer in forfeit. I won’t marry if it’s a lie. I owe that to God and I think to you as well. Could you marry me if it was for forever?”

Emma looked up from the unrolled bandage she had been worrying with her fingers. “I could.” She was surprised to feel disappointment at his words, realized she had been hoping for more – less of an explanation of the sacrament of marriage, and more of his inner thoughts. Hers were still so jumbled, it was hard to sort through the fear and desire and affection and sadness she was feeling at the moment.

Henry took a breath and her hand at the same time, but couldn’t meet her eyes suddenly. “There is something else too. I –“ he gripped her hand tighter, reminding her of soldiers on their sickbeds, confessing secrets that are a relief to be said aloud. “I love you. I love you now and can bear it if you think you can love me someday, perhaps when we are free of war and the daily reminders of our different allegiances have eased. But I cannot bear it if this will be a trial for you. If you would be with me but long for Frank. “

She enclosed her free hand around his, gently, kindly. “I can love you someday.”

He glanced up, a question in his gaze and Emma smiled back (beautifully, gracefully). “I think in fact I love you now.”

It wasn’t at all how she pictured it. And it was perfect.

**Author's Note:**

> Forgive me the use of the word 'sacrament,' as marriage is not actually a sacrament for Protestants. But it sounds much better for the purposes of this story than 'covenant!'


End file.
